Reacting To Diddy’s Arrest & “Freak Offs”: What Happens Next? | Billboard Unfiltered

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In this episode of 'Billboard Unfiltered,' Billboard staffers Carl Lamarre, Trevor Anderson, Kyle Denis and Damien Scott go in depth about the controversy surrounding Diddy’s charges, arrest and how the world has reacted to it. The trio also discuss why Tyla & Tems aren’t categorized as afrobeats artists, Lil Wayne’s comment about his Super Bowl snub and more.

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00:00I mean this is a federal raid y'all like the FBI raided two of these houses like this is something
00:04that has been set up for so long this has to be a plan for months if not years.
00:08You can't be mad at an artist for wanting their art to be properly perceived.
00:12Right.
00:13You can never be upset about it.
00:14I can't remember another performer in recent memory like actually going and putting up a
00:21video being like oh I'm heartbroken I wasn't chosen and what is that?
00:26Hey what's going on guys and welcome to a fresh episode of Billboard unfiltered.
00:34Gentlemen welcome back.
00:36What's up?
00:37It feels like the like the season premiere or something everybody like now everybody's
00:41back everybody's on vacation.
00:42Kind of like season two right?
00:43Different assignments yeah.
00:44Well I wish we were gonna start the show on a very light note um but we're gonna get into
00:51the trenches into the mud.
00:54You brought the negativity back with you.
00:56Sadly man I was on an island when I when I heard about this news right here so Mr.
01:03Sean P.
01:04Diddy Combs charged with sex trafficking and racketeering.
01:10Per Billboard.com federal prosecutors on Tuesday unsealed a criminal indictment against
01:15Sean Diddy Combs over sweeping allegations of sexual abuse accusing the once powerful
01:20rapper producer and music executive of running a racketeering conspiracy that included sex
01:27trafficking forced labor kidnapping arson and bribery.
01:32Mr. Combs tried to finagle his way out with bail 50 million got debted and he will be
01:41inside a jail until the start of his trial.
01:47Um guys we kind of I kind of saw this coming I'm not gonna front um he saw it coming that's
01:56why he came back to New York.
01:57Yeah just to do his little farewell tour.
01:59That's okay um yeah Central Park some baby favor with the court and to say look we're
02:07not running we came back.
02:10Passport surrendered all this kind of his legal team was like he surrendered his passport
02:15already we're playing ball please don't lock us up.
02:21I'm I agree with you a thousand percent I'm just conflicted like the nigga was out here
02:25taking selfies with cats in the street like I don't know if this was his way of like you
02:29know like I might not be outside again and let me try to you know show some.
02:34Well if you're if you're facing if you're facing what he was facing and a jury has to
02:41decide whether or not to go forward with it uh it makes sense for you to be outside
02:48looking like you are you know hugging babies and saving cats.
02:54But you would have thought he was looking like damn near bulletproof like indomitable
02:58brushing his hair this is like peak pop swag like yeah well his face looked a little his
03:01face looked a little pained he looked like if you like zoomed in on the face you can
03:04tell he was like but you saw like yo this is pop daddy right here and he was brushing
03:09his hair like yeah yeah yeah take that yeah I think it's part of his ego like you look
03:14at this indictment and that and you're you're looking at somebody who's not operating from
03:18a place of humanity or decency like and to get to that point a lot of the time especially
03:24when you're someone that famous there's a level of hubris that you reach and I think
03:27that's him feeding into it for himself like I don't think he knows how to not be that
03:32version yeah I don't think that comes off especially now yeah like you need that
03:37whatever armor he's built up over the years you need that now more than ever right well
03:43and yeah the PR gloss is like I mean to that point it's like you can't sit here if you
03:49look like something's wrong and you look guilty that's only going to invite more questions
03:53of like you know oh did he well you know had a hood over his head and he would you know
03:56just walk back and you know the back of a restaurant didn't say nothing nobody like
04:00that's only going to invite more scrutiny of like oh he must know something especially
04:04because none of us you know knew that this arrest was going to happen on Monday I mean
04:08we knew this was in the ether we knew it was going to be out there ever since
04:11Cassie's lawsuit last year like it was always coming but if you start to look like really
04:16like oh man the past week you know the weight's getting to him you know something's going
04:20to jump off yeah and so it's sort of just that pretend like everything's okay until
04:24the moment it's not I just want to know man brother love man and it's definitely not
04:30yeah I'll have to say not his not not his best week
04:34what do you got why do you need a thousand bottles of baby oil that's a little crazy
04:42it's what do you need a thousand bottles for you know it's funny what prosecutors will
04:46say and what they want like it's an intentional thing to drop that detail right yeah like
04:51it's well like these things are especially in the age of social media you'll see it with
04:57like you know like any antitrust case that comes down with like a big a big company like
05:05these things are written knowing that the public's going to read them so you try to
05:10tell a story with the indictment so people can like better understand where you're going
05:16and like what you're trying to do and like why this thing is happening and so it's 100%
05:22and so it's 100% I'm sure they found a bunch of other things that are
05:28maybe not as you know on its face in a vacuum as hilarious as a thousand bottles of baby oil
05:35but it's like oh we this paints a picture of how freaky this nigga was because we found a thousand
05:43bottles of baby oil like he could I don't know what would be worse that or like the massive drums
05:48of baby oil that you know if you have just like a pump and and it's like a it's like a
05:52fucking standing drum at the Costco super family size like would that be worse or is it worse to
05:57have like a pantry full of baby oil and it's like which one today I'm curious what conversations
06:03y'all had maybe whether it was with parents or like your elders I know I'm talking to my mom
06:07on the way here she was asking me what a freak off was oh my god yeah I was gonna get into that
06:12I understand the legal strategy behind like this whole thing using the term freak off in there
06:19because you know you're trying to get you're honest away as towards understanding that he
06:23was committing sex crime without actually trying him for sex right well it's just harder to try
06:28so you allude to it in the storytelling of the indictment yeah but the downside of it is like
06:34we are currently a society that is very very very unserious so you see the term freak offs
06:39and people are just like cracking jokes you know all up and down the timeline in real life
06:45trying to figure out what they actually were and it's like yeah these were gatherings where people
06:50were not in a state of being where they can give consent to what was happening so it was like
06:55allegedly allegedly right so it's like this it's a lot darker than what the term might you know
07:02give off just the the innate hilarity of the term freak off so that's like the weird part of
07:09seeing that term like in the official documents but yeah it also put me in a weird spot i mean
07:13to explain to my parents and like older people in my life what this thing that a freak off was
07:20it's or even just seeing it it's just every day now you just see it cascading down x you know and
07:27on instagram it's just like it's like now it's a part of the cultural parlance freak off is now a
07:34thing that we have to deal with yeah like no diddy like all the different expressions that
07:40came out of this just go just further cheap and what actually we're talking about here when we
07:45look at this full indictment we look at what he allegedly has done to people but some of the
07:50biggest takeaways so far have been memed by the internet and now they're just stuck in our lexicon
07:56in this really uncomfortable way yeah yeah i'm curious to ask you guys this i was talking to
08:01before the show there's a few people you know who have i spoke to when they were very open eyes and
08:08said yo the time that he's facing because you know if found guilty he's cooked he's facing life he's
08:14done for one of the charges for one of the charges now knowing that is it too much
08:24it's tough to say right now i think we have to see like the totality of
08:27what's been discovered and you know hear all the testimonies so because you know we don't know
08:32right like i didn't know until yesterday or the day before whenever that they found
08:39ar-15s with the serial numbers yeah scraped off and it's like then they found like a pink powder
08:44substance that was ecstasy yeah it's like i don't know what else is gonna happen or what's gonna
08:50what's gonna be discovered and during the course of this case so
08:56i don't know i think it's too early to tell yeah as somebody who has you know grown up
09:03loving bad boy uh puff what he was able to represent like i'm curious man how are you
09:09you know taking all this uh it sucks i think i said this yesterday and another meeting yeah
09:15it just it just it feels like a betrayal uh you know this is a person who i think more than
09:21anybody else if you grew up in the 90s uh listening to hip-hop uh there was no larger and you're from
09:30the east coast like i was there was no larger figure than than diddy even if you hated the
09:36idea of diddy even if you thought that he was you know uh uh cheapening rap and by making it
09:47too pop leaning and he was you know making uh what he was doing was not considered hip-hop i
09:57remember speaking to i won't say this guy's name i remember speaking to uh a music exec years ago
10:03uh and i told him my favorite rap album was harlem world and i was like it's not i don't think it's
10:10the best it's just my favorite and he was like oh man harlem world's when rap died he's like
10:15that's when hip-hop died and to me i was like that's an insane insane thing but you know there
10:22are people who feel that way but even if you are that person did he still loomed large large enough
10:28for you to believe that he could end this thing that you were a part of and um it's tough to to
10:36reconcile and to wrap your head around uh what was allegedly going on while he was building this
10:43world that you as a fan were so a part of and then bought so much into uh yes it's it's pretty
10:52fucked it's devastating to learn you know you don't want to believe that your most formative years
11:00were helped along by a guy that was doing such allegedly heinous things so you know
11:08not a good time it's conflicting i mean guys this is somebody who was just nominated for a grammy
11:14so you know his fortune obviously really shitty right now um how do you guys look at puff's legacy
11:23you know with everything that's just been transpiring the last year or so like
11:27shit are you guys gonna give him the r kelly treatment where it's like i might not be
11:33bumping any more puff i mean my office with r kelly you know i'm not i'll speak sort of general
11:42um you know the thing about r kelly that always was was talked about was how the music felt like
11:47it was a real reflection of what was going on it was sort of you know in the subtext of all the
11:52lyrics agent number to number like whatever sort of you know things r kelly was talking about
11:57everyone's like but he was saying it on the record like listen to the factory in the midst of the
12:02trial it's insane yeah it's fucking crazy i mean so but with puff like i don't know how
12:07and especially you know if if he is convicted on you know any of these things i mean i feel like
12:12that's a clear sort of death sentence at least especially in a public forum i actually heard
12:17somebody playing r kelly the other day and i was like no i no i no sir no sir i was like
12:27that's what's up in the name of love come on i was like don't lie now god's watching
12:32no no i was just happy people come on myself i was damn you got any more
12:43they know the only one i play and that's the jay-z r kelly the guilty to prove it innocent
12:49that's it that's well like like i said to that person about that so this is brave
12:53this is really brave um but yeah i mean i feel like like especially like again to what kyle's
12:59point is when you when we really dive into what is going to be unsealed all people that have been
13:03talking about this all the all the things that are going to come out i mean this is a federal
13:07raid like the fbi raided two of these houses like this is something that has been set up for so long
13:12this is not this is no willy nilly kind of let's just go see you i mean this has to be a plan for
13:18months if not years like to really go in on this so i'm scared of what's coming out i think it's
13:23gonna you know completely just remove him from from public life in that sense um and it was kind
13:31of crazy because especially for someone who grew up sort of just after puff's biggest era you know
13:37in the in the mid 90s 97 in particular he was really kind of that last figure of that mythical
13:43era who was still out here obviously we already lost tupac we lost biggie dray you know is much
13:47more reclusive than puff certainly um you know snoop is still out there probably and suge knight
13:53was always you know very reclusive sort of the lore and the myth was always out there but you
13:57never really saw the man so for him to sort of be the last big domino of that era that kind of
14:03that that really just is it is crazy because it feels like nobody can really continue that legacy
14:08on and everybody's either you know unfortunately been murdered or is tainted in some way i mean
14:13except pretty much snoop is like the only one who's sort of keeping it out there so it just
14:18sucks for that period of hip-hop because that period of course is so massive in terms of
14:22how hip-hop really just became this global you know commercial force i mean some of the best
14:27records of you know all hip-hop history or that era we got the rise of so many legends and just
14:32for it felt like puff could maybe be the one who you know became the sort of chief mourner chief
14:37architect the guy that whether you love him or hate him you know he was there in that moment
14:42and he could help tell that story and now it's like damn like like there are no heroes in that
14:47era it feels like anymore yeah i mean you're talking about biggie 112 low kim mary j blige
14:54total that tree spans even i think he's such a i think if you stop listening to his solo music
15:02yeah sure that's a very easy task i think i think it gets uh increasingly difficult as you
15:11go further into the genre of r&b and i mean this guy was executive producing albums for people who
15:20he seemingly had no connection to you know he we're talking we were talking about uh about
15:27wyclef and ll he executive produced phenomenon you know like he he was such a part of the fabric of
15:37hip-hop that i don't know if you can extricate it in the same way that you can r kelly uh because
15:45there's i can't think of an era between 94 and
15:572015 maybe where he wasn't just churning out music for people
16:07i don't know i don't know how you parse that
16:11do you punish people for having an album produced by diddy
16:17and also be interesting to see like what we saw with r kelly when a few artists who
16:21have collaborated with him decided to pull their own music from spotify and other streaming services
16:26uh thinking like lady gaga in particular so be curious to see maybe in the next couple
16:31weeks months especially like as we get to the trial period and especially after the verdict
16:34if some of the collaborators do choose to go that route uh it will be probably a little harder
16:39for them just in the sense of you know who owns the music i mean obviously a plus footprints are
16:44probably you know he's much more a business executive than say r kelly was so if they even
16:49have the rights to pull it down or who's you know who owns the music might be it might be a
16:54a contentious point but that's one thing that i'll definitely look out for you know as we
16:58move forward in this saga kyle i'm curious with you being the youngest one here like you know i
17:03guess speaking for your generation is there like this kind of reverence i guess that we have for
17:09puff because we're older like you see what your generation i would say yeah especially growing up
17:14in new york like at the time i'm growing up like he's already been solidified as an icon and a
17:19legend so he is part of every party you go to every gathering every function like you're hearing
17:24at least really four or five songs with his vocals on it let alone tracks that he hasn't had a hand
17:29in you know helping produce helping right just being in the studio around so it's like that
17:35reverence was almost built in like we didn't even have to witness the rise you kind of came up and
17:39it was like these are the established icons you kind of have to have some level of respect for
17:44them and then they become a part of your own life and then on top of that we're growing up in an era
17:50where he's not just a massive star and recording artist he's also part of pop culture it's just
17:56a figure and a symbol like you think of kesha just you know changing that lyric in her song where
18:02she used to reference diddy and now she is i think the line is something along the lines of like um
18:08wake up in the morning feeling like p diddy and i was like wake up in the morning like fuck p diddy
18:12like and that's an electric pop song from 2011 like that's how far his influence extends and
18:19across how many generations he's influenced and impacted so i think we definitely had that
18:24reverence i think i'm probably currently personally inclined to like not do a full
18:32mute on the stuff that he has had a hand in versus like his solo stuff like what dame was saying
18:36before mostly because the music wasn't always like an exact reflection of what some of these
18:43allegations are so it's a bit easier to put up that level of separation versus an art kelly
18:49but in times like this i really just think about cassie who isn't named in the 14 page indictment
18:55that just you know got unsealed yesterday but it's clear when you read that that her testimony
19:00from last november really was the missing link to putting all of this together so we got to this
19:05point and you know we think of the way her career was completely just kneecapped by diddy you know
19:12and what her account of that was so i in a way i kind of want to like stream her stuff and stream
19:19her non-diddy stuff to give her you know just whatever boost i can and support instead of you
19:24know throwing money behind diddy or anything like that but yeah to answer your question definitely
19:30still have that reference from and we also watched his family like have careers of their own like not
19:35only do we have diddy we have king combs like we watched him do music we watch him do reality tv
19:40like he has a big following amongst my age group as well so it's like the family itself is also
19:46just entrenched in pop culture which makes this whole thing even more devastating but yeah to that
19:52point man pray to the kids man um i saw like the twin daughters they're gonna be living with uh
19:59kim porter's best friend i thought i'd report um another thing to know which i thought was kind of
20:04crazy before we pivot um this is all happening a week after the 28th anniversary of tupac's passing
20:15so pak is probably like i saw some of the memes too where you know he was floating in the clouds
20:22just looking down like like i mean to that point this is like all coming out like happening like
20:27a couple days after kendrick drops watch the party die and like there you go you think of just you
20:32know what he's talking about in that song kendrick going up for pak himself this entire year like
20:37it's very cosmically poetic in that in that sense but the time has been time has been crazy yeah i
20:43mean on a non-park note two people were cycling that kat williams video where he said you know
20:482024 you know and he named diddy and every said diddy and everybody is gonna you know and it's
20:53like that's a good impression that that's that's a money that's a money impression right there i
20:59gotta give you that i'm a little slick i'm available for work if you're interested i like that
21:04having a low budget kat williams but um yeah but like the fact that it's like it feels yeah like
21:11cosmic poetic bigger than just happenstance it's kind of it's kind of crazy yeah and i know 50's
21:17laughing to the bank oh yeah we saw he's about to cash the fuck in already making his memes and
21:22yeah um guys for any more puff updates please go to billboard.com um especially when we get
21:30news about this trial day two so we'll keep our eyes on that pivoting over miss tyla
21:38by the way i love tyla man her her coming through billboard r&b number ones doing her thing there
21:44she was just racking them up got an award there got an award at the vma's had a little viral moment
21:50a little tiny viral moment with uh miss halle bailey she couldn't hold her award
21:57which was something we saw at the rb number ones too um those awards are heavy
22:05so we'll give a we'll give it a benefit of the doubt there we you know with our foresight uh
22:11had people yeah to hold them yeah that's fair that's what we did that's fair
22:17shout out to us just a little yeah a little event planning note you know that's a great point um
22:26but the main point of contention wasn't that it was her speech award-winning speech at the vma's
22:31where she was saying she does not want to be classified as an afro beats artist that she
22:40falls under the tree of i'm a piano which led to a broader discussion about just classification
22:46of artists especially with afro beats is a very touchy sensitive thing so
22:51does she have a valid claim with that i'm curious to ask you guys um i would say yes because you
22:58know i'm looking when i remembered who was nominated in my category alongside her and
23:01the songs that they were nominated for in the videos they were nominated for
23:05was like these this is an r&b song this is a pop song this is an afrobeat song this is in
23:10a mafiana song and yet they're all only in this category it's not like they're also getting
23:16recognition in r&b and pop fields are all being relegated to this afro beats umbrella which is
23:21already a faulty umbrella because that's the term that you know the states kind of landed on when it
23:26first broke through here and we didn't really do much to properly note say the different styles
23:33and subgenres that are coming out from across the continent so you have people who are not even
23:37operating at all in the lineage of what actual afrobeat sounds like they still get called that
23:43and i understand how that can be frustrating and put them in a spot where it's like i'm not saying
23:48fuck my award but i am saying it's weird accepting this knowing the kind of music that i make and
23:53knowing the awards that i'm winning over people who are making that kind of music and it's like
23:59no some of this stuff is just r&b they need to be put in the proper categories and we should
24:04you know at this point in afrobeat sort of like stateside crossover journey
24:09there should be just greater care taken across the board from you know all kinds of music
24:17institutions about how we classify and categorize things i mean even the the song video that won
24:22the best k-pop award is like performed entirely in english and it's like why wasn't that also
24:27nominated for best pop is a valid question why wasn't it so i think she definitely had a valid
24:34point and i wish that was truly the focal point of the night and not the whole award snafu but
24:41what can you do agree thousand percent what can you drill um yeah i mean i think kyle hit a lot
24:47of that on the head i want to add too that sometimes it can be a business sort of decision
24:53and a lane like especially for a genre that's emerging where the infrastructure on the western
24:58labels is maybe not fully fleshed out there is you know there there is not a lot of attention
25:04where okay are you afro pop are you afro r&b are you you know straight afro beats to where
25:10those relationships whether it's with streaming services or or award shows or whatever aren't
25:14fully focused so sometimes people do get just lumped into one you know well you kind of sound
25:19like this so these people can work you or you look like this so you know you can fit in in this
25:23landscape and so i think uh you know hopefully as as the genre continues to grow and the worldwide
25:29impact continues to just get larger and larger those kind of places those kind of infrastructures
25:33can be put in place to where you know everybody is who comes from sub-saharan africa is not just
25:39afro beats you know that we can recognize the differences between things that are happening in
25:42nigeria or ghana or south africa and put those those guardrails into place obviously with tyler
25:49being you know maybe at least certainly in the past couple years the biggest south african breakout
25:54like um you know hopefully like that that as a pioneer you know it sort of sucks that you have
26:00to go through that lane but you know now that people are recognizing okay there is a different
26:04sound coming out of south africa i see a lot of people you know learning about i'm a piano for
26:08the first time and not realizing yes there is a difference between what's happening in nigeria
26:12what's happening in south africa you know hopefully you know the next artist who comes through and the
26:18ones after that have it a little easier than going through this yeah dame i mean yeah it's a
26:25tale as old as time you know i don't think black people have been crying about being miscategorized
26:34since we started making music and it gets more difficult when you are from a continent or
26:41a country on a continent that people are wholly unfamiliar with
26:45i think you know i i feel her frustration and i think her her points are valid i think also
26:54the american music market is not as
27:01thoughtful as she probably hopes it is and um you know there's people who if you were to ask
27:09the people i'm sure there's people who love the title song that have no idea what country she's
27:16from yeah have no idea uh what the difference is between uh nigeria and south african culture
27:25let alone music um so you know i think in the education it's going to be a slow role in doing
27:32that and i think it's up to artists like her to help along that education and to say
27:41like thank you for the acknowledgement however this person is an afrobeat artist you know what
27:48i do is this and um you know i understand the frustration again but i think it's like you have
27:55to really like understand the mark you're at the vmas like
28:02we're i'm surprised you even have a category for that you know it's like this is this is like new
28:08new new stuff and uh we're gonna have to work with people to help them understand like what's going on
28:16here especially if you look at like how many black american artists go up at award shows
28:22and you know like tyler and being like yo thank you but this is not a it's not a rap
28:30so you know it's it's it's valid but it's also like there's a lot of work to do and
28:36you gotta do the work but we all have to do the work to that point yeah because i think about
28:40if you really want to open this whole shit up open it up no no no get the can open real talk
28:47like you think about it like even with r&b right like we try to break it down into different sub
28:54genres like you know like you got the fucking shah daves the uh d'angelo's the whole neo soul
28:59shit but a fucking shot but i mean i say that because she's a fucking legend that's what i
29:04mean yeah you gotta you gotta throw the fucking on it because she's a fucking legend but i say
29:09that to say like you know is it maybe is it that much of a tedious task to want to have to break
29:16down every genre to sub genres i think people i think artists want to feel like their music is
29:26being properly received and if you make something and uh the market is like oh here's here's product
29:37a and you're like it's not a product a it's a it's clearly a product c but the whole world is
29:43like man i love product a's what are you going to do you know it's like very much a possibility
29:50that people uh this is as much as people can understand right you know i know people get
29:57really frustrated at at these uh at the way these things move and you know how these things work
30:06their whole job is to sell music right like there's it's in it's in their benefit for people
30:12to better understand this so they can better consume the stuff and it's like we need more
30:19education but also if we were to make it more complicated there's this chance that people will
30:25just tune out yeah you know and it's like it's a very very very very like there's my family's
30:33jamaican i grew up listening to reggae there's so many different types of reggae music that no one
30:38knows about it's all reggae to everybody no matter what no matter who makes it it's reggae music
30:44and that's just what it is you know to jamaicans you know they'll rattle off like you know this is
30:50all this is roots reggae and you know this is culture to americans it's like this is just
30:55reggae music this is gonna sound crazy me saying this i feel like the only award show that at least
31:01tries to break it down from an award standpoint maybe the grammys because it helps if you can
31:07give out you know 75 that part yeah because i mean everything else is pretty generic it's just
31:11like best r&b best rap you know yeah it's just like fuck it if it fits if this is the bucket
31:18that is the most appropriate just throw it in there you know you can't be mad at an artist for
31:22wanting their art to be properly received right you can never be upset at that and you know i
31:28think i also think we in the media and the artists need to do the work to make sure that people
31:36understand that and that's what that's just a part of the work now people who probably have
31:39never heard of any of the stuff she said is going to go home and google it and and you know be like
31:44oh what what is she talking about and that's like a first step you know and hopefully someone comes
31:48after her that's you know as big and you know when afro beats came out people were like what
31:54what's this you know is this just reggae you know yeah yeah that was a like like to sort of get the
32:01you know yeah there's a dance hall like is like that's a whole different region of the world
32:05that's just a drum guy i mean it just takes it just takes you know education and it takes more
32:10people so and it's always going to be reactive i think people kind of have to understand that
32:16and have a little i mean a little grace with it because you know the artists are going to be the
32:20ones who are on the forefront making something that we never heard before combining these two
32:24sounds switching this up and so you know those sort of infrastructures are are quite ready for
32:30you know i mean and there are things now that we probably look back at and would have been like
32:34oh you know when the first melodic rap records came along people are probably like is this okay
32:38we kind of singing so is this like is this more r&b is this like on a trap beat and now you know
32:44it's so it's so squarely taken over the hip-hop lane that it's like you get more melody and
32:49singing that you do like you know hardcore southern rap whatever it's like so now you know
32:5410 years back we would have looked at that as as okay we got it from the guys from yes from from
33:00generally the mid uh but we don't look back at that as like okay maybe the r&b space is what
33:04is what's changing we need to go with that no actually it's the hip-hop space that's really
33:08that's really changing and and now now that we see that with the benefit of hindsight you know
33:11we know sort of where those things lie but at the time you know i mean there are plenty of
33:16conversations about like how how is this going to work you know in terms of in terms of the
33:21business in terms of marketing in terms of targeting it's one of those things that you
33:24know when you log on any product for the first time and they ask you like what are five genres
33:28you like and it's like so you know from from jump it's already like let's let's get some order and
33:32some structure around this and try to figure out what works and what doesn't and where you go and
33:36where you belong and who we can target that to and sell that to and what demographic and genre and
33:41base like that so that's sort of the starting point and you know i think we can only sort of
33:47catch up as artists continue to innovate and and really they're the ones who are pioneering all
33:52this so we on the business side you know have to just try to to dame's point close the gap as best
33:58we can but we're never gonna really be right there with them yeah great let's try to do better
34:06ladies and gentlemen let's do better let's do better final topic for the show for the day
34:14Mr. Wheezy
34:18you know i i thought this whole thing was done but of course the man himself
34:22had some words he chimed in about the super bowl halftime show snub on uh instagram last week
34:31voiced his disappointment kind of expected you know this um award show to be his being that's
34:38gonna be new orleans next year um curious to get y'all thoughts and feedback about his reaction
34:43to being snubbed you feel for him you know i think and this is one of the great and horrible things
34:50about i guess the internet and this i don't say horrible it's not that horrible but unfortunate
34:55things about the internet is that yeah is that we sort of perpetuate these narratives i think that
35:01that you know i like i remember when i think somebody was was tweeting about missy elliot
35:06to get the vanguard award and it just started you know i don't think that year she wasn't in
35:10contention or whatever somebody's like hey missy needs this obviously we haven't you know seen a
35:14lot of missy and music and whatnot so we weren't sure you know she's gonna pop back out whatever
35:18and that really got a lot of traction and you know i don't know for sure i don't have you know
35:23any sourcing at the vmas but soon after she like a year or so later she does get it so it's sort of
35:28one of those things where people say okay that narrative which had purpose and had logic and
35:33reason behind it ended up translating into that moment so i imagine i could see the same situation
35:38where you know when superbowl is going to be announced in new orleans there was this interest
35:41that was drummed up to like well yo wheezy shit like of course it's going to be wheezy why wouldn't
35:45it be wheezy it's going to be a new orleans yeah it should be right when wayne yeah yeah okay of
35:50course they're gonna pick wayne they're gonna pick wayne they're gonna pick wayne they're gonna pick
35:52wayne they're gonna pick kendrick and then you know so i feel like we sort of got in this soup
36:00where we just believed i shouldn't say we the internet believed that it was just gonna have to
36:04happen and that's not how necessarily business decisions and things like that work i'm sure they
36:10saw you can ignore the chatter i'm sure they they saw about it processed it whatever made the
36:15decision to go with kendrick but it's just sort of unfortunate that that i guess we let this jump
36:21to a point where we were all convinced and for sure that it was going to happen and we could
36:25only let ourselves down off something that we really had no foundation for like the truth of
36:33it to be out there yeah i think it's important to mention too when you say zay um superbowl
36:38halftime producer jesse collins said just how to interview with variety the man responsible for the
36:44halftime show performance these last five years has been mr sean carter so he is handpicking
36:51these choices interesting interesting because if you know because now everybody's like wait a second
36:58brrrr didn't we say last week there was the report out that the host city you know it's
37:03the host city makes the decision at least in part with so do you know oprah what what is the truth
37:11i think the whole city has like a hand in it but i think the final probably the final choice is like
37:17oh hope which would be which is it's funny because that's what we all suspected and then
37:22it came out and it was corrected and now it's like it's not y'all y'all were right it's true
37:29kyle hmm i we know you're pro pro doc come on i just i get that way and probably felt compelled
37:38to make this video statement on ig live and blah blah blah i hate that it even got to that point
37:46and it's like part of it for me is like i feel like the fans deluding themselves into thinking
37:52that one outcome was the only outcome that could have possibly happened as part of like
37:58fans overstepping their boundaries as fans thinking that they're also in these rooms
38:02making these decisions and know how any of this goes down by the time that ad with kendrick dropped
38:09like there is no point in any of this discussion like every paper has been signed he's probably
38:15already booking or has already booked rehearsal space like at best we're looking at wayne coming
38:21out as a guest and you guys are already ruining what that moment could be because everyone's
38:26whining about a decision that's been made like the ad is airing like it's it's happening i hate that
38:33like it got to this point that like i i don't i can't remember another performer in recent memory
38:40like actually going and putting up a video being like oh i'm heartbroken i wasn't chosen and did
38:47what is that like oh damn i can't like what is that like damn people are in contention every
38:54single year i don't think anyone does that outcry to this degree i also don't think this would have
38:58been an outcry there would have been knock at this degree if it was someone other than
39:01kendrick who was chosen i think that's also part of it i think so really oh yeah yes but
39:07everybody's been team kendrick so now you think they're kind of everyone hasn't been team kendrick
39:12everyone has been on either side of this thing it's not even 80 20 but even then like
39:17so you're saying the outrage of kendrick because this wayne wayne wayne to drake to kendrick we
39:23don't get nikki minaj pretending that jay-z slighted some up-and-coming black young artist
39:31if it wasn't kendrick lamar we don't get drake posting a picture on my instagram story showing
39:34support if it wasn't because it was kendrick chosen to somebody else like i just so you're
39:40saying if it was like so it was like taylor swift instead of kendrick you think everybody would just
39:44oh of course because it's taylor because she's the biggest pop star in the world i think almost
39:48anybody over i think the fact that the first solo rap headlining show was happening in new
39:52orleans and they didn't choose low when they ended up choosing someone who effectively like
39:57murdered his son in cold blood in front of the entire world this year yeah i think people are
40:02like up in arms okay so it's the way it's the way it's the way kendrick pipeline okay i think
40:08anybody else that was not named wayne there would have been some kind of outcry because
40:12i'm thinking if they if they had gone heritage not to this extent because i also being in new
40:18orleans yes because this whole i this whole thing of the home of the host city having something to
40:24do with like who gets picked to be a performer it's like a very recent development like there
40:28is not overlap it normally is it happened once and it barely was even a thing it was like he
40:34curated it and there were like three out of the five people also weren't from california
40:38from that coast of the country but you also have to remember to wayne voiced you know wanting to do
40:43this as well yeah yeah passionate people do you know i think that's definitely a part of it i
40:47think i think it's it's it's a very it's been a very contentious few months and all of it mixed
40:54together has created this boiling point which i don't think we get if it's not kendrick lamar
41:00i don't think you get it because also it's like people are looking at it like oh if you're gonna
41:05pick a rapper why not pick this guy you know who's from this city who is also a legend who
41:13voiced that he would love it's a dream of his to do this why wouldn't you get that guy instead of
41:20the guy as kyle said who uh had some words for his understudy that's crazy i i could see it
41:29though i didn't i'm i don't want to put two and two together but i could understand it
41:34you know i think it was like a taylor swift of course like okay let's say it's not people are
41:40upset every year at the super bowl right but not like this that's the reason they got jay-z in the
41:45first place is because people were like why the fuck do you keep getting all these heritage old
41:49guitar acts sure yeah irrelevant jay-z comes in and starts doing this thing and people are like
41:54oh this is better and even then people are like well why is it this person why isn't it that
41:59person but this was the year for some reason where people are like in up in arms we have the
42:04first solo rapper who was a black man doing it and people are like it should be this other solo
42:14black man rapper and black man rapper sounds hilarious uh and it should be him but i think
42:19it was taylor swift people were like upset for sure but they were like oh well we had no chance
42:24because they're clearly going for this i think it would be more outcry if it was taylor i think it's
42:28like oh if you're going that's what you're going for because we've had like six niggas in a row
42:31from the hip-hop well i think i think taylor swift is a is a real like unicorn exception because
42:37she is the biggest pop star in the like bar none but i think if they're you know if it's uh
42:42camille i don't know if that's like a billie eilish or something maybe even billie eilish they
42:46would there would be outcry in the hip-hop community i think people would because obviously
42:50billie is very hot right now huge single but i think the fact that yeah it would have been like
42:55okay but y'all still could like like y'all could have gave billy next year she'll still be hot
42:59wayne in this city in this moment i do think i also like i think they're i think there would
43:03be outcry i don't think we'd be talking about it for weeks yeah you'd have been like all right well
43:07that was and i think that crowd would more just generally be like damn i wish it was somebody who
43:11was a rapper or somebody was in that space and not specifically like outcry i think the wayne
43:16specific outcry definitely has a connection to who was picked as well i don't think those two
43:21things are you can't unlike nikki will would not be this upset that's fair like this is like her
43:27third tirade in like forever and it's like you've done the super bowl already like were you hoping
43:31that young money would bring y'all would have a little reunion also and you missed out on that
43:35like people have been talking at a very like fervent level for a long time now like about
43:43this pick when this should be a cause for celebration because it is literal history
43:47but do you think is the nikki thing is it is it against like kendrick or is it's pro wayne
43:53it's i think it's anti jay to be completely honest like when you read those comments
44:04to the point of would she be going this hard if it were like anybody but wayne
44:08i mean at that point by that logic yeah honestly by that logic she all i think because it is wayne
44:13that's like also her one person that she does ride for outside of like drake and the industry
44:17you know she kind of yeah yeah i mean today yeah can i pose y'all this question real quick
44:22um it's a two-parter so really quick if kendrick calls you if you're wayne and says hey i want you
44:29to come on stage are you going to pop up at the super bowl this year that's a and then b
44:37if that doesn't happen if jay says i want you to perform at the super bowl next year
44:42which is going to be in san francisco are you doing it yes and yes yeah yes and yes
44:48i mean you either want to perform at the super bowl or you don't like you don't change
44:52over and overnight because there was like drama and people like were crying about it for this
44:57one year i think kendrick has always been open to how much he loves and adores wayne
45:01as a rapper as a overall like a role model in the game i think if kendrick approached him
45:07as kendrick probably would with respect and admiration he would absolutely do it
45:11and if you get offered the super bowl next year i can't really imagine him saying no especially
45:16after you've made you've now played into making this public outcry about how much you wanted and
45:21how broken you are it does look kind of crazy if you say no next year even if it does maybe feel
45:27like a handout well talk to your fans for backing you into that kind of corner by making it a handout
45:32situation when it didn't need to be yeah i guess that's that's the question like does it feel like
45:35a pity like you'll never know right like that's all in your hands is it a thing where okay i gotta
45:42pull up this olive branch or whatnot if i'm if i'm wayne i mean i guess ultimately i would put
45:48on for the city you know i guess you come out for 30 seconds nigga you could do lollipop
46:00i mean just because i feel like the city would go up so hard for that moment like
46:04and it almost would be a bygones be bygones kind of thing like like if that happens you know that's
46:08just going to be the happy ending to the story and so it might take a minute for me to you know
46:14swallow that pride i really you know calling back but ultimately i think just for the city
46:18yeah and to know what they would go for i would do it and would you take the san francisco call
46:24uh yeah but but i kind of think i think if one happens i don't know if the other happens got it
46:29okay or there probably some space in between yeah i mean i can't necessarily see i don't
46:33know anybody who's really pulled up back to back so i got it i think it's the reverse that bruno did
46:38but he had yeah you first and then came out as a guest after yeah i mean kendrick went to one now
46:43he's doing oh yeah kendrick i mean that's true i gotta throw this out there real quick not to be
46:47the you know the wet blanket for wayne but no no and i'm a huge wayne supporter so about the apollo
46:53he was dope but wayne does have a history for canceling showing up late 100 but i do think i
47:00mean to wayne's point i think it like it's sort of in the interviews and the podcast and things
47:05you know what this is yeah and everybody's gonna sit you down and say let me tell you something
47:09i don't care what's going on you know you get in the beyonce coachella six months we're rehearsing
47:14every day you're not drinking you're not smoking we are not messing this up the night after you go
47:19do whatever you want bro but this moment right here and he knows that seriously you know the
47:23grammys the hip-hop 50 tribute he was supposed to be part of that and he bailed very last second
47:28yeah but that but you know the grammys go on yeah so we're not about to show up for a sound
47:34check rehearsals and all that yeah you're not about to have the nfl put a spotlight on it
47:38because you don't get down where's wayne wait a minute yeah so i mean i mean yeah i know all
47:44those reports are out there i personally believe every nfl game going forward yeah i think he
47:48would lock in the pack yo the packers be playing somehow yeah um i think wayne understands i think
47:55he would definitely take that serious i i have all faith in that okay and if not the team better
48:00take it serious and make it happen rude for you wayne somehow some way lastly yeah let's get to
48:06our lightning round picks of the week mr scott uh what you bumping i am listening to trying to
48:17understand uh all red
48:28all right so i wanted to i wanted to discuss it with all of you guys
48:32i think it's a great song yeah but why does it sound the way it sounds it's a great question
48:40it's okay it's cool to be inspired right uh that's i remember when everyone was like
48:45uh this designer kid is trash he sounds just like future panda this sounds
48:53this sounds more like future than panda sounded like future wow yes i agree i can i can agree with
48:59that i thought this was future when i was i did check that i was like is there a hidden feature
49:04on here but the voice didn't change i thought it was future i was like this is i was like oh this
49:09is dope you got future on the record it's like i feel like in my gut this is just like
49:17not what the rest of the record sounds like and this is just what this one song so like it doesn't
49:21even sound like his collabs and lucy's from earlier this year like it all sounds like a different
49:26card in a different era so maybe just for the sake of it being the lead single it sounds this
49:31might be like the most commercial record he has i don't expect the rest of the album to sound like
49:38this but i don't i don't know why he went for this sound but i'm not mad at it it's the most
49:44lucid he's sounded on a record yeah this is just like the like uh him making an accessible rap
49:51record this is it this is like closer to the center of rap than anything else he's made over
50:00the past few years uh it's just bizarre to me that he's able well that he sounds like future
50:08also bizarrely he's able to sound just like future like i was like is this ai or is this just
50:14him got that ear you know like morphing his voice to sound like it if that's how close it is it is
50:22it is very very close it's utterly bizarre how do you sound for the album i'm excited for the album
50:29just because i'm i'm always excited to see what what cardi does this this is just like can you
50:34imagine if you sound like future the entire album or he sounds like happy various
50:43he sounds like drake and then thug and then because he's he sounded like thug
50:51but this was this was fascinating it's a great record though well it's off to a crazy streaming
50:55star too so really definitely yeah i mean they've been streaming very well on apple uh strong on
51:00spotify too so welcome should yeah should come through pretty pretty high next week also crazy
51:05he's doing this as future is about to drop yeah yeah friday yep so mixtape ludo all crazy
51:12if there's nothing that's as good as this song then oh future's got a problem oh yeah but that's
51:19my pick okay um kyle i picked a song that ferg featured on last week and now i'm back with
51:25another ferg pick this is a off-white rose it's it's so hard it's like that classic 90s new york
51:32sound but actually fresh in a way that doesn't sound like he's doing pastiche or trying to
51:37recreate the exact feel of that era but you kind of get that like lunchroom beatbox vibe but in a
51:44very 2020s way and ferg just is so electric on a record every time he gets on there like his voice
51:49just is so commanding in a way that i feel is still so underrated in today's landscape like
51:55and how we utilize his voice on records like great voice on him and it's a fun track party
52:00starting track and i i hope to hear it a lot at homecoming yeah i'm gonna say homecoming a project
52:08like it's been what two years three years let me ask at least yeah but hopefully something's on
52:14the way because this one's good okay good trip uh i switched things up went to an rb vibe this week
52:23um and i've wanted to talk about october london for a little bit just because
52:30well i think he's doing an interesting sort of thing because especially
52:34i guess even maybe going back to the discussions about different pockets of rb i mean this is a
52:38very retro leaning sound the album is literally called the rebirth of marvin so um that just
52:43kind of gives you the the the vibe of what his voice in particular sounds like a lot of the
52:48production was uh you know that sort of 60s 70s kind of feel but you know with rmb really being
52:54dominated by you know trap soul a lot of more contemporary sounds i think for the folks who
52:59like a little you know classic rmb vibe he's coming through really well the back to your
53:04place song uh was a huge hit on the charts last year on on the rb radio stations uh he's on death
53:10row with um snoop obviously having a big uh focus on his career there so shout out to snoop there
53:17but the song in particular i want to highlight is a song he put out a few weeks ago called she
53:20keeps calling which samples a stylistic classic hurry up this way again so a little more 80s vibe
53:26uh so we're sort of slowly marching towards the present there but i think he's got a very silky
53:31voice uh he's very uh just sort of smooth classic singer great falsetto in particular i mean i'm
53:38always down for a good falsetto so he really just is a very solid strong singer on tour right now
53:43with maxwell and jasmine sullivan so you know you got to bring it if you're on a bill with those
53:48heavy weights and i think he definitely uh in particular this sound you know is not so of the
53:54moment in a way that i think actually helps them stand out and i think also lends itself to a really
54:00long career there's there's not really gonna be a moment where i think it's like damn you still
54:04trying to you know play over these beats and and this kind of we moved on it's like no from from
54:09jump i think the whole catalog will really be uh one that stands out okay shout out to him i like
54:15that doing his thing yeah um i didn't have one but i do have one um come on off the cup yeah yeah
54:22yeah no no no because i'm gonna piggyback while you're bumping on the yacht kyle oh right i was
54:28actually yeah he did a leon thomas record he did might i actually been playing the remix
54:36freddy gibbs oh shout out to gangsta gibbs wait say that one more time leon thomas song is called
54:44song has a song called might yeah and then he dropped the remix with freddy gibbs yeah correct
54:49what did not expect that yeah you know what i could see apparently give him the verse back
54:56super quick too look he really likes the record yeah man and the verse fits pretty much leon he
55:00kept the kept the hug kept the vocals kept everything essentially just added in a verse
55:05for freddy uh i miss freddy gibbs man um i know he's been you know in his happy relationship
55:11so i'm sure he got some some nice motivation for that verse but um now i love what leon's able to
55:20do man we spoke about it before his pen is crazy he's gonna be on a blast his tour which i believe
55:24kicks off next month i want to say he's opening up for that uh leon's album drops next week two
55:31weeks from now there we go and then you know when you're working with ty dolla yeah you know
55:35some magic is going to ensue so i definitely want to see what the album is going to do
55:39and yeah i just want some more gangsta gibbs man that was a good verse yeah check that out
55:42yeah man raw gangsta gibbs if you love practice gangsta gibbs then you'll love this type of gibbs
55:50all right yeah it's good
55:51he's got a little bit of that in there yeah um gentlemen it was great to be back and kick it
56:03with y'all hopefully y'all enjoyed this episode of billboard unfiltered and we will see you guys
56:08next week

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